


Space Outside Story

by GretchenSinister



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012), The Lorax (2012)
Genre: Gen, I feel...dread, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-19
Updated: 2019-04-19
Packaged: 2020-01-16 06:58:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18516277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "(Jack/the Once-ler): I don’t know how, I just want it.Bonus: Bunnymund and the Lorax are old friends/colleagues? They are both guardians of the nature, in their own way."I should have recorded the noise I made in reaction to this prompt; it would have given everyone a good laugh.Anyway…no slash for you! You get meta! AKA Jack finds his place in the world outside of all the stories he’s in and meets the Once-ler in that space. I know the premise and the medium clash and/or lead to an infinite recursion, so, kindly ignore that.





	Space Outside Story

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 5/6/2015.

There had been a brief time when Jack knew only a few things about himself. He knew that at some point, he had known nothing but his name, that he could fly, that he could make ice and snow, and that he could not be seen. He knew that he had discovered more about himself and a past he had with his family through memories stored in the tooth box the Tooth Fairy kept for him. He knew that Jamie Bennett had been the first child to see him, and he knew he had defeated Pitch Black with the other Guardians. He knew he was officially a Guardian, and that his center was Fun. There were a few other ideas that bumped against these—sometimes he was struck with the odd thought that he was Pitch’s brother, and there was a persistent quiet assumption in the back of his mind that he had once been an alien called Nightlight—but mostly, he knew who he was.  
  
Then something changed. He couldn’t define it, but it happened to the rest of the Guardians at the same time, though they seemed to face less of whatever it was.  _”So, does anyone else feel like their head exploded?” he’d asked the others. “Yeah,” Bunny had said, “but”—he looked Jack up and down. “You’re going to get the worst of it.”_  And apparently, he had. Those days had been filled with intense confusion, conflicting sensations, even more conflicting emotions. Every time he spoke he felt like he was speaking in a chorus of hundreds of other versions of himself. He couldn’t keep track of where he really was, if there even  _was_  such a place. Strange people passed into the places where he was, and when he found a Guardian’s familiar face—even Pitch’s familiar face—they seemed to be in the grip of the same maelstrom as he was.  
  
Eventually, he learned how to ground himself outside of the storm, which slowly, slowly seemed to calm. He learned that there was a space outside of it, and how to navigate it. It was a vast space, possibly infinite, but since it could be traversed with a thought, there was no real way of knowing its size. It felt almost as familiar as Burgess, though it was crowded with people, places, and things, that would never fit within that town or even the whole world of the Guardians.  
  
In this space, he could always find the Guardians and Pitch, no matter what, and this made him feel comfortable in his wanderings through the emptier parts of the space, which helped when his mind was full of contradictory memories.  
  
On one of these wandering days, he crossed barren hill after barren hill until he saw a tall, precariously narrow house. He decided to head towards it, as there was no other goal in sight. When he reached it, it seemed abandoned, and, feeling a little more coherent, Jack was ready to think himself back to the North Pole that existed in this space. But when he glanced up at it one more time, he saw a green-gloved hand push open the shutters of an upstairs window.  
  
“Do you know who I am?” a voice called nervously.  
  
“Um…” a lot of people in this space opened with that question, and their reactions tended to vary widely. “Sorry, but no. Maybe if I saw your face?”  
  
“No!” The voice yelled down. “I don’t have a face! I should never have had a face! I don’t want a face! I’ve seen my face too many times!”  
  
“Showing me your face wouldn’t mean you had to look at yours,” Jack said, confused. “I don’t have your face.”  
  
“I never know!” The voice was almost a shriek. “I never know! There were too many! Too many!   
  
“Look, um…are you new here? It’s okay, it can be kind of weird, but generally you’ll run into yourself less than in…well, I call it the maelstrom because it’s a cool word, even if the experience isn’t all the time.”  
  
The voice laughed bitterly, and Jack saw a vague human silhouette move into the window. “I’ve been here a lot longer than you have. I used to mean something. I used to have something important to say. Now I just…” the shape moves away from the window. “It’s not as bad as it was. But I’d like to be left alone right now. Especially by someone like you. You’re still in the thick of it, I can tell, even from up here. You could bring attention back to me and I…I can’t go through that again.”  
  
“There can still be that kind of effect here?” Jack asked  
  
“I’m not here to answer your questions! I need you to leave! Be glad, whenever you don’t meet yourself!” The green-gloved hand reached out and slammed the window shut.  
  
“Okay. Well.” Jack turned away from the house and took a few steps away. “Good luck, whoever you are.” He glanced back once before disappearing. Maybe he would come back in a year, or whatever passed for a year around here. The person in that house wouldn’t get any better company than themselves if they kept telling everyone to go away. Maybe Jack could even help him deal with the maelstrom. 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments from Tumblr: 
> 
> bowlingforgerbils said: HAHAHAHA this was hilarious. Poor Onceler! I can’t blame him for not handling his fandom very well.


End file.
